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This research note is a call to scholars, particularly those with impairments, working in the social sciences to be more actively engaged in the use of reflexive ethnography in leisure spaces. The nature of ethnographic research places the social scientist in a privileged position. On the one hand there is a need to transfer knowledge to the academic community, but on the other this should not occur as a result of the exploitation of the people under investigation. Using a reflexive ethnographic vignette of a visit to a public house, this note illustrates how, by using our bodies in leisure spaces as the focus of research, scholars with impairments can eliminate some of the ethical concerns that surround more traditional methods of ethnography. Ultimately, this note argues that by adopting a phenomenological stance we can gain a better understanding of the degree to which disablism is still present within leisure spaces and society more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A distinct and identifiable 'deaf community', comprised of people who view themselves as members of a social, cultural and linguistic minority, has been recognised for many years. One of the main ways in which deaf people joined together was as members of their local deaf clubs, where they shared their leisure time with others with similar experiences, interests and outlooks. These deaf clubs served as the social and cultural hubs for the deaf community, allowing deaf people to form personal and communal attachments that extended far beyond the physical spaces the clubs inhabited. The clubs allowed the transmission of shared culture, language, tradition and history amongst deaf people, and in doing so provided their members with emotional rewards that exceeded those of merely filling leisure time. A brief analysis of the activities and motivations of deaf club members will be offered to support the contention that engagement in the leisure opportunities provided by deaf clubs provided emotional and psychological attachment to a community as well as a physical space for these activities to take place. The term 'deaf club' was as important for the sense of community and belonging it engendered as it was as a place to spend leisure time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines restrictions of activity experienced by partially sighted individuals when accessing football opportunities at the grassroots level. The social relational understanding of disability enables an understanding of the manifestation of socially imposed restrictions of activity and 'impairment effects' within this particular sporting context. Although some players experience impairment effects, restrictions of activity are also socially imposed and constitute disability. The organisation of the British Blind Sport Visually Impaired Football League (BBSVIFL) forces players to travel long distances to participate and poor awareness of opportunities presents a further socially imposed restriction of activity. An increasing emphasis on competition over participation in the BBSVIFL and the classification of partially sighted footballers are socially imposed restrictions of activity for players with more severe visual impairment. A change in the format of football in the BBSVIFL from five-a-side to Futsal, the format of small-sided football recognised by Federation Internationale de Football Association and played in all international tournaments, raises further concerns. For players with more severe visual impairment, this change could lead to another socially imposed restriction of activity which has the potential to leave them in 'no man's land' in terms of access to football opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can people with intellectual disabilities use serious leisure activities in a similar context to people without disabilities as a substitute for their paid work? In the past, western societies have tended to devalue people with disabilities, and as a consequence they were less likely to have valued social roles through paid work. However, for many people with disabilities, serious leisure should be valued as it encourages active participation in either formal group structures, or informal networks of devotees, for the sharing of common leisure interests as an amateur, hobbyist or volunteer. This study has used a qualitative methodology incorporating semi-structured interviews with a small purposive sample of adults with disabilities who were living independently in the community. They were selected as prospective respondents by key staff in several disability service agencies in Brisbane, Australia, because of their successful participation in community-based leisure activities that were classified as 'serious'. The results of this study found that people with disabilities have the ability to participate in serious leisure activities and to successfully engage at such a level so as to enable them to develop increased levels of confidence, skills and self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, disabled people's access to the outdoors has been the subject of renewed interest. This has in part been driven by legislative developments coupled with an increasing recognition that disabled people are under-represented as users of the countryside. However, very little is actually known about disabled people's views and experiences of the outdoors. Drawing on the concept of affordances and combining this with a social barrier's approach to disability, we explore disabled people's attitudes towards and experiences of woodland and countryside leisure. We argue that disabled people's reasons for being outdoors are more complex than simply seeking 'rehabilitation'; and, like their non-disabled counterparts, access to the outdoors is perceived for some as an integral aspect of wellbeing and revitalisation. Through engagement with the outdoors, disabled people are challenging normative constructions of who they are and their purpose in being in the countryside. The paper concludes by arguing that providers of outdoor leisure services need to go beyond barrier removal and understand disabled people's uses and views of the outdoors in planning the provision of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on disability and cultural life (the arts, leisure, recreation, sport and tourism) in the Australian context has largely been captured by medical approaches to disability. In contrast, this paper takes direction from social approaches to disability that place the experience of people with disabilities (PwD) at the centre of the research paradigm by examining this population's human rights' experiences. The paper is framed by reviewing the United Nations' disability initiatives including the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The research then analyses the implementation and operation of Australia's Disability Discrimination Act, 1992 in respect to the cultural life of PwD. The research design uses a mixed method interpretive approach drawing on the management information systems of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Federal Court. The analysis of 420 complaint cases and 80 Federal court actions show a relationship between the types of discrimination experienced in cultural life and gender, disability type and industry sector. The recurring themes of discrimination demonstrate an ongoing struggle by PwD to assert their rights of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an outline of a thesis concerning the ways in which the discourse of leisure studies has become 'disabled by definition'. Through a failure to engage adequately with disability studies, disability politics and disabled people as both leisure participants and leisure theorists, the subject field of leisure studies has been unable to develop a coherent body of knowledge on disability and leisure. In effect, leisure studies' engagement with disability has been paralysed by its exclusive discourses, definitions and models drawn from the able-bodied, mobile and physically active worlds of work, recreation and physical education. These discourses, emanating from the 1960s disciplinary traditions of the sociology of work, geography of outdoor recreation and physical education, have prioritised discourses and definitions of the economically employed, independently mobile, physically able and conventionally aesthetic body, respectively. It is argued here that these three discourses have, in combination, shaped the body politic of leisure studies and a focus on social exclusion which is itself exclusive. In conclusion, the subject field of leisure studies now requires the development of a more inclusive discourse informed by new definitions of leisure and wider engagement with disability research and disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]